Post-Holiday Bug, and the Magic Italian Garlic Cure

All the traipsing through airports, day-after-Christmas shopping, shoveling snow without a muffler around my face, hugging my sick little grandsons and visiting pediaticians has landed me in bed honking and hacking. I'm cuddled up with a nebulizer, box of tissues, Ricola cough drops, Vicks VapoRub and both a nasal and inhaled corticosteroid. Oh, and my laptop and iPod Touch (a Christmas present from my husband).

Nothing like a dose of reality. It’s been eons since I’ve had a respiratory infection or asthma symptoms that I couldn’t nip at the first sign. As I retrieved my Aeroneb from the top shelf of the linen closet, I wondered if I had all the parts needed, if it would start and if I’d saved the instruction booklet. I unzipped the small case to find everything intact; the palm-sized, battery-operated base powered up on the first try. I plugged the power connector into the back of the nebulizer cup, poured the medicine in and instantly a fine mist silently streamed into my burning airways. I must remember to store it that way when this episode is over.

My husband has already been exposed to whatever I have, but I insisted that he sleep in the other room last night. Even so, while I was coughing up a lung, he was at the door asking if I was OK (no)--and in the rare moments of silence when I had stopped coughing, he was checking to make sure I was still alive.

It’s always worse at night, although the daytime version is no picnic either. John is taking me to the internist at 3:00 to find out if this really is bronchitis or if it's pneumonia or a sinus infection. I don’t feel like crawling out of my blankets, brushing my hair or changing out of my sweatshirt hoodie, flannel jammies and knee socks and climbing into uncontaminated clothing to go to the doctor’s office or anywhere at all. Maybe I could just roll the blankets around me and go in dressed as is. Somehow I don’t think that’s going to happen.

What I really want is Sandra Fusco-Walker’s (AANMA’s Director of Patient Advocacy) magic Italian garlic cure. Rather, I want someone to make it for me, since John’s specialty is pouring cereal. Here's her recipe: Boil two heads of garlic until fork-tender. Slice in half, separating the top from the bottom. Heat olive oil in cast-iron skillet, season the garlic halves and cook until golden on both sides. Smear onto French bread, and watch out! Talk about pulling the plug on mucus!

It seems this crud is everywhere but it has no name--no epidemic or pandemic status in the news. Despite pumps of hand sanitizers at every cash register and in my purse, this bug needs no handshake to multiply. Just the holidays.

Commiserate at editor@aanma.org.

(By way of disclosure, Aeroneb, Ricola, Vicks and Sandra’s Magic Italian Garlic Cure did not pay for mentions in this blog.)

Catching Z-z-z-z-z's

Are your child’s nighttime asthma symptoms robbing you of precious sleep? Leaving you bleary-eyed and dozing in traffic the next day while your little one has made a miraculous and energetic recovery by morning? It’s a common occurrence leaving parents perplexed. You wonder, Did last night’s horrific coughing, gagging and wheezing really happen, and was it as serious as it seemed? The answer to both questions is most likely "Yes." And it’s possible to put an end to all of it.
The culprits for nighttime symptoms due to post-nasal drip resulting from nasal allergies could be airborne allergens circulating around your room. But which ones? Allergy testing can reveal the sources - but getting rid of them is another story. Get help with AANMA’s Indoor AIRepair kit, which you can download for free.

Another tip to try (30 days free) is PureZone; a HEPA air-purifying system that creates a sleep zone of purely filtered air. When I first saw the prototype of the product, I was skeptical that it could possibly work. Kids with asthma and allergies tend to toss and turn all night. So James, another skeptic who works with AANMA tried the unit to see if it would affect his son’s allergies and nighttime symptoms. After one night, he called and said it was the first night that his son had slept through without tearing off the sheets and blanket from tossing and turning and coughing.

It’s really a rather ingenious feat of engineering: a quiet fan tucked next to the mattress draws air from within the room through a soft HEPA filter tunnel into a washable pillow case covering your own pillow. When turned on, the white noise tunes out the rest of the world and the pillow case billows like a cloud.

You don’t feel air blowing on you – at least, I didn’t – but you notice that the air you breathe is, well, nice. Better still, significant research shows that patients who have allergy symptoms and asthma that worsen at night reported dramatic improvement in symptoms when using the product.

By way of disclosure, PureZone has not paid for this blog mention. AANMA makes no endorsements or claims about this or any product we write about. We hope you enjoy learning more about your options - let us know what you think!

FDA: No more luring kids with flavored cigarettes

Today the FDA announced that it is banning cigarettes with fruit, candy and clove flavors. In many cases, tobacco companies have created these flavored cigarettes with the expressed intention of attracting young people. FDA's newly created Center for Tobacco Products intends for this ban to help cut back on the droves of young people who are drawn to smoking cigarettes every day.

Smoking can exacerbate asthma and other respiratory conditions--not just for the smokers themselves, but for people around them who have these conditions. It is crucial to nip this problem in the bud, and to keep kids from thinking that smoking is enjoyable or "cool." The ban on these products is a step in the right direction.

During an FDA media briefing, which AANMA participated in today, officials shared a few pertinent facts:

• Every day in the U.S., about 3,600 youths between the ages of 12 and 17 start smoking; about 1,100 go on to become daily smokers
• 1 out of every 5 U.S. deaths can be traced to tobacco use
• Smokers tend to die about 14 years earlier than non-smokers

Particularly troubling were memos from tobacco company officials that were quoted during the call. Lawrence R. Deyton, MSPH, MD, director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, mentioned directives from tobacco company higher-ups to develop cigarette flavors such as cola, apple and honey--because teenagers are known to like sweet things.

Deyton referred to these flavored cigarettes as a "gateway," noting that many smokers take their first puffs during their teen years and that these flavors are designed to "attract and lure kids into addiction." Let's hope that the new ban will help steer young people away from the deadly path of cigarette addiction.

Asthma: No Laughing Matter

Laughter may be the best medicine unless your airways are raw with inflammation - the kind associated with asthma. Researchers in Australia found that as many as one in three people with asthma start wheezing, coughing or feeling short of breath when laughing!

Laughing asthma is really just another form of exercise-induced asthma and both are signs that airway inflammation is out of control and I'm not joking. Need more convincing evidence?

Your allergist can measure various aspects of lung function using a machine called a spirometer. But to know if allergic asthma is causing airway inflammation, there is a new test now approved by Blue Cross Blue Shield that measures exhaled nitric oxide (eNO), a by-product found in your breath (no, it doesn't smell bad) if your airways are inflamed. The test is non-invasive, easy to do for kids and adults. 

This new technology takes us just one step closer to customizing asthma action plans to meet your specific needs...such as laughing until your sides hurt but without asthma symptoms!

To learn more about eNO, visit AANMA's website and search eNO. You can also visit Aerocrine or Aperion websites. And no, they didn't pay for these links but if I'd asked them to help sponsor this blog, I would tell you that, too.

Is Asthma Serious?

Seems like a silly question. But it isn't. That's why Allergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics (AANMA) is conducting a short survey to see exactly what others think.

Personally, I hate taking surveys. I don't answer the automated phone calls - you know - the ones that come during dinner saying, "Help the country be a better place to live by taking our short...." Click. I'm so bad, I begrudgingly fill out the US Census survey every five years.

But this survey is different. Even I would take this survey because I care about asthma. I can't take the survey because I work for AANMA the nonprofit organization asking the questions. We're on a mission that we simply can't complete until we better understand how you answer the question: Is asthma serious?

By way of Honest Abe: There are no sponsors for this survey. No advertising. No links to other sites and no pop-ups. Take the survey and then watch for the results on September 25th, 2009. Thank you!!